Dane slammed on the brakes, grateful for their seatbelts.

“Oh my God! Are those Unholy?” Marley asked. Thankfully, she had been looking out the window while Dane was focused on her, or he’d have driven into the middle of what could only be considered Unholy chaos. “Can you drive a stick?”

“What?”

“Can you drive a stick shift?”

“Yes but—”

“I need you to take the car and go back to my apartment,” Dane instructed as he pulled the Boxster to the side of the road and found a place to park away from the mayhem.

“What are you going to do?” Marley asked.

“My job. Please, Sweetness. Take the car.” Dane punched two on speed dial and waited for Frey to pick up.

“Are you done being a dick?” Frey asked when he answered.

“Yeah, sorry about that, Brother. I was out with my mate and had to take care of something. Listen, I’m at the corner of Mitchell and Dunlop downtown, and there are Unholy everywhere. I need you to call Jasper and get him out here as police presence.” Dane loosened his tie and unbuttoned his shirt.

“That’s why I was calling earlier, to let you know the fuckers are doing double-time tonight. They’re everywhere. I don’t have anyone close to you. Hang back, Abbott. Don’t do anything stupid until reinforcements get there. Hang on.” Frey barked orders into the comm system telling one of the patrol teams to head to Dane. “I’m serious about this. Don’t go all cowboy on me, Dane. Stay put until backup comes.”

“No can do, Frey. I cannot sit idly by and watch these bastards kill innocent people. Just hurry the fuck up.” Dane disconnected and removed his coat, tie, and shirt. It was hard to do in such close quarters, but he managed.

“What the hell are you taking your shirt off for?” Marley asked, taking his clothes when he handed them over.

“It’s one of my favorites. I don’t want to get blood all over it. When I get out, take the car to my apartment and lock the door. Do not open it for anyone you don’t know. Promise me.”

“I promise, but Dane…” Marley didn’t finish. She pulled him to her and kissed him. Desperately. Passionately. It was her begging him to be safe.

“I’ll be fine. Now, go. I don’t want to worry about you while I’m fighting them,” he said.

“I love you, Chief.”

Dane responded with a fierce kiss of his own before climbing out of the car. It said something about the seriousness of the situation that he would turn over his “baby” to his female. He had never let anyone drive the Boxster, and he never thought he would. Marley was more important to him than a pile of plastic, metal, chrome, and leather.

Dane didn’t have his comm unit with him. He kept it in the glove box of his patrol car since that was the vehicle he drove every day. Frey would kick his ass for going up against the Unholy without backup, but it was a chance he would have to take.

Hiding in the shadows, Dane assessed how to take on the monsters and do the most damage. It was a well-lit area where plenty of humans were driving by and could see what was going on. Thankfully, any pedestrians had run away, and all he had to worry about was keeping his wings from unfurling. As he formulated a game plan in his mind, movement from farther down the street caught his eye. Two large males moved back away from the Unholy. Instead of fighting them off, the two were watching with amused expressions.

Dane bet the title to his Porsche they were two of the three Greeks Kallisto had sent before her world had fallen apart. There was no way he could go up against two Gargoyles and come out unscathed, so he veered right at the corner, hoping to take out as many Unholy as he could until the others arrived. Unleashing his beast, Dane ran into the melee with claws bared.

Over the past few months, Dane had gotten accustomed to how the Unholy moved. How they fought. How they didn’t think about what they were doing. They merely went into the fray like mindless puppets swinging at anything that got in their way. Having spent hours at the gym with Frey after he got off work had done wonders for Dane’s fighting skills. Being able to take down the meatheads with roundhouse kicks, sweeps, and other martial arts moves saved his hands from getting torn to shreds. Where the Unholy used their brute strength against their opponents, Dane and the Stone Society were able to use their brains as well as their shifter strength and speed.

His beast was itching to be turned loose, but Dane kept it at bay even though he was getting tired. Just when he thought he was going to be taken out by a couple of the Unholy, the cavalry arrived in the form of several Gargoyles dropping from the rooftops onto the ground surrounding him. “Take a breather,” Jasper instructed. Dane didn’t hesitate to find a brick wall of one of the local businesses to lean against while letting his muscles rest. A spare comm was tossed his way, and he stuck it in his ear so he would be connected to the rest of the group.

“Abbott, talk to me,” Frey growled.

“There’s approximately thirty I can see. There are also two large males watching from the sidelines. I’d bet money they belong to Kallisto.”

“Do you still have eyes on them?”

“No, hang on.” Dane returned to the corner where he’d seen the males hovering. He moved closer to the area, keeping his eyes and ears open for talking instead of the sounds of flesh over bone pounding against flesh. “I’m looking,” he updated Frey as he jogged up and down several one-way streets of downtown New Atlanta. “Dammit, if we could phase, it would level the playing field.”

“And wreak havoc with the humans.”

“I don’t see the males anywhere, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t still around. I’m going topside.” As badly as Dane wanted to unfurl his wings and launch into the sky, he couldn’t risk being seen, so he found a fire escape ladder and scaled it quickly, landing on the roof of the building. He scanned the other rooftops before searching the sea of bodies below. When he didn’t find what he was looking for, Dane backed up, took a running start, and leapt across to the next roof so he could scan the street on the other side of the building. After several minutes of searching and coming up short, he dropped down into a dark alley and headed back to help his Clan. As he turned the corner, Dane caught the taillights of his Boxster speeding away from the scene. The two males he’d noticed earlier jumped in an SUV and took off after her. “Fuck!”

 

 

Marley should have done as Dane said. After she removed her heels and slid over into the driver’s seat, she should have clicked on the seatbelt, put the car in first, and eased off the clutch. Instead, she sat frozen as Dane took off into the middle of the monsters known as Unholy. It was the first time she’d ever seen them in real life, and she was scared shitless, yet here Dane was fighting them by himself. Shirtless. Why the hell had he taken off his shirt? Yeah, he was probably going to get bloody, but still.

One by one, Dane took down monster after hulking monster. His movements were synchronized like a ballet dancer’s, all graceful and smooth. He took a few strikes of his own when several Unholy ganged up on him, and it was all she could do to sit there and watch. But watch she did.

Instead of calling for police backup, Dane had called Frey, the owner of the gym where she and Cammie worked out. He had told Frey to contact Jasper, a detective. Why hadn’t he called the other police for backup? Because he’d called the Gargoyles. They were better equipped to fight the Unholy, thus keeping the human police safe. Marley had seen Frey sparring at the gym, and the man was a beast in the ring. Dane was no slouch.

Marley had just decided to get away from the area and go back to Dane’s apartment like he asked when several men fell from the sky. Falling was a stretch, because they landed on their feet with more agility than a cat jumping off a chair. “Holy shit,” Marley muttered to herself. Jasper’s red hair was all the color amid the black T-shirts and fatigues. Dane disappeared from view for a few minutes before he took off down the street, coming toward Marley.

She just knew she was caught, and she had no excuse for sitting there other than morbid curiosity. From the look of concentration on Dane’s face, he was searching for something or someone. Marley sat mesmerized as he crouched down and jumped at least twenty feet in the air, grabbing onto an old fire escape ladder. Leaning over so she could look out the passenger window, Marley waited for Dane to climb back down. Just when she had given up and figured he had somehow found a door leading inside, Dane jumped from one rooftop to the next. Marley gasped, but Dane landed easily on his feet. “Holy shit!” she repeated. Dane had said the Gargoyles were basically superhumans, and now she understood.

Marley pinched the inside of her arm hard enough to leave a bruise. When the pain registered in her brain, she knew she wasn’t dreaming. When a couple of Unholy – at least she thought they were Unholy – caught sight of her and headed toward the car, she pushed in the clutch and slammed the car in first gear, not bothering to put on her seatbelt until she was well away from the sight of a horror movie. There was no other way to describe what she’d just witnessed. Seeing Unholy on the television was one thing. To bear witness to them in real life was completely different. That was some scary shit, and Dane stopped to fight with them on purpose.

She weaved her way down a one-way street, crossed over, then headed south on another. It took several minutes to find the onramp for the interstate, but when she did, she let out a huge breath. Realizing she was pushing a hundred, Marley let off the accelerator and dropped down close to the speed limit. Her mind was going as fast as the Porsche was. If her head had been clear, she would have enjoyed driving Dane’s car. If her mind had been clear, she would have noticed the SUV on her bumper.

Marley’s hands hurt from white-knuckling the steering wheel, and before she realized it, she was well on her way to New Macon. At the next exit, Marley flipped on the blinker so she could loop back around and head north. Before she could get in the left-hand lane, a large SUV cut her off and pushed her toward the concrete barrier on the overpass. Her life flashed before her eyes as she let out a scream Dane probably heard where he was. The Porsche was being mangled between the short wall and the larger vehicle. There was no way she was giving up without a fight. Marley slammed on the brakes at the same time she jammed the clutch to the floorboard.

The SUV cut hard to the right, doing their best to keep Marley hemmed in. When she finally got stopped, she put the car in reverse and tried to back up, but there was another car behind her blocking her path. She looked in the rearview mirror, desperately hoping whoever it was behind her was calling the cops. When the man in the car behind her got out, Marley’s heart stopped. It was one of the men from the alley who had been walking toward her.

Just as he reached her window, the man disappeared. The side mirror had been torn off by the first car running into her, so she couldn’t see anything other than the vehicles. The SUV that had her pinned to the wall began rocking. Marley was torn between staying in the car where she had no idea what was going on while waiting for someone else to come after her, and getting out to find help. Opting for the latter, Marley shoved against the door when it stuck, and once she had it open, she gingerly climbed out and took a look around. The man who had been at her window was nowhere to be seen, and two men were beside the SUV that ran her off the road, fighting.

“Marley, get back in the car,” one of the men yelled while ducking a punch. He looked familiar. She was certain he’d been in the diner, and he knew her name, so he was probably one of Dane’s friends. An engine revved behind her, and before she could turn around or get back in Dane’s Porsche, Marley was grabbed from behind, lifted off her feet.

“Help!” she screamed, scratching at the arms banding her waist. Those arms tightened as she kicked her feet and threw her head back, hoping to break her captor’s nose.

“Fucking bitch,” the man hissed in a thick accent. “If I didn’t need you alive, I’d snap your fucking neck. Now, stop squirming.”

Marley quit trying to get away, but she couldn’t stop shaking. She had no idea why these men were after her much less why they had tried to kill her. Then again, if they were trying to kill her before, why did he say they needed her alive? The man who had yelled her name turned to come help her, but he was grabbed by the collar and jerked backwards. Marley was tossed in the backseat of the SUV and the door slammed behind her before her captor climbed into the passenger seat up front.

Marley scrambled to the other side trying to put as much distance between her and the one who grabbed her as possible. As large a man as he was, all he had to do was reach into the back seat and he could have his hands on her again. Before she had time to really think, the driver slammed his foot on the accelerator, slinging Marley backwards against the seat. Cursing, he slammed on the brakes, sending her into the floorboard. While the driver was slinging expletives left and right, the passenger said, “Yeah, boss. We got her.” There was no way she was going wherever these men planned to take her.

Before she lost her nerve or her better sense took over, Marley reached up, grabbing the handle to the back door. Taking a deep breath, she pushed the door open and jumped. Jumped might have been a stretch. More like she dove out the moving vehicle with no idea what she was headed toward other than an unforgiving ground. As the asphalt rose up to meet her, Marley prayed to every known deity who would listen for her not to die. The pain was excruciating. Even more so than childbirth. Her head bounced off the pavement and blood filled her mouth where she bit her tongue. Her bare arms and legs skidded across the gravel and debris, her flesh shredding. Tires screeched, and Marley closed her eyes, waiting to be run over. “Dane,” she whimpered as she closed her eyes and waited on death.